Motivation Theories: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg's Two Factor Theory

This article discusses the two motivational theories, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg's Two Factor Theory, and how they work in an organization to increase job satisfaction and productivity.

Individual
recruitment and
selection

Table of Contents
Motivation.............................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................7

Motivation
It is the process of inspiring people to action to achieve the goals and to perform best
for their abilities to create desire amongst its employees. It is the psychological event which
means to satisfy the needs and wants. It can be financial and non financial. In which non
financial motivation can be in form recognition, praise, increased participation in decision
making, give higher responsibility etc. while in financial motivation it can be in the form of
increasing wages, prizes, allowances, bonus etc. Through motivation it makes the manager
realise and fulfil the needs of the employees accordingly (Demirkol and Nalla, 2018). It
makes the best utilisation of resources by workers as they are highly motivated. It creates the
better industrial relationship between organisation and its workers and which creates
efficiency of employees. It has two types of motivation that is internal and external
motivation. In internal it helps to achieve its goals for its personal satisfaction and desire like
setting up own business. Something to do for inner enjoyment, personal satisfaction and not
for an outcome such as rewards or praises. In external motivation, it comes from outside to
motivate people like giving recognition, appraisals, fame or praise etc.
There are five motivational theories namely Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory,
herzberg's two factor theory, mcclelland's need achievement theory, mcgregor's X and Y
theory and an equity theory. Two theories are discussed in detail which are maslow's
hierarchy of need theory and herzberg's two factor theory.
Maslow's hierarchy of need theory has five tier of model of human needs and wants
in a pyramid shape. It was proposed by Abraham Maslow in 1943 which contains job
satisfaction rotate around employees needs. It starts with physiological needs which is very
basic and at the bottom. It required to complete its necessary need for its survival like food,
shelter, water, clothing and sleep without them other needs cannot follow up. For example
tesco, it complete the basic needs of employees such as a place to work, a locker to keep
personal stuff safe, food allowance and fair monthly salary to its employees so that at work
place they will be highly motivated (Iwaniec and Dunn, 2020). Secondly, security needs as
there physiological needs satisfied so this need become salient. It is related to its financial
security, personal security, health and protection from accident etc. for example in context to
tesco, it provides job security to its employees, sickness leaves, pension as well as ensure its
employees at workplace with health and safety so that they focus more on its work rather than
safety. The third need of this theory is love and belongingness needs in which it includes
friendships, family, romantic attachments, religious organisations etc. It helps to avoid the

problem of loneliness and depression. For example in relation to tesco, it enables its staff to
work as team and family and provide them discount and shopping coupons, offers for gym
membership, theme parks for its staff etc. It will keep its employees highly motivated and
energetic at the work place (Rhodes, McEwan and Rebar, 2019). The second last theory of
maslow's theory is self esteem which is ego driven needs and wants. It is based on
acknowledgement and respect from its seniors and others as its primary elements are self
esteem and self respect. For example with reference to Tesco company, it praises its
employees by giving appraisals, achievements, rewards, promotions etc. for the hard work
done by its employees. It helps the company and employees for the better work done in return
and employees gets motivated and more enthusiastic towards the work. The last step in
maslow's hierarchy need theory and it is at the top of the theory which describes the
fulfilment of full potential as a person. In the last step people are more concerned with
personal growth, self aware, interested in fulfilling their potential in the most appropriate
manner etc. it is one of the unique feature that looks different for everyone. For example in
context to tesco, the company provide personal development programmes to their employees
to enhance their skills and talent to satisfy their inner peace and reach to higher levels in the
organisation. The maslow's hierarchy of need theory has been discussed appropriately.
The herzberg's theory has two factors of motivation that is hygiene factors and
motivational factors. It direct the result of attitude on motivation by asking them when they
feel good or bad and about their job. It entails the job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction and
how to overcome from this. It encourages job satisfaction relate to self actualisation and self
development. The first factor of this theory is hygiene factor which helps in decreasing the
job dissatisfaction and won't encourage employees to work harder which result on them to
become unmotivated (Ripoll, 2019). It makes the company policies equivalent to its
competitors, fair and appropriate. It help to stop bullying and makes healthy and appropriate
relationship between its subordinates, superior, peers which creates a good and safe working
environment. The work of hygiene factor is to pay fair and reasonable salary to its employees
as it should be competitive with other companies of the same industry. It is an important for
employees to feel safe and secure about the job and not under the stable threat of being broke.
For example in context to Sainsbury, it provides appropriate and fair salary to its employees
in comparison to its competitors which encourages them to work with dedication. The
company also provide job satisfaction to employees so that they won't leave the job in
between and it also provide good working environment as they provide regular training and

activities at workplace which helps to create good and positive atmosphere (Sale, 2020).
Sainsbury's policies are fair and clear to everyone at the workplace and equivalent to its
competitors. It does not only provide salary to its employees but also solve their problems
and make the environment of company eco friendly. It provides job satisfaction during the
time of covid by giving them work from home opportunities which creates satisfaction
among them. Motivational factor is the second factor of herzberg's theory of motivation
which encourages its employees to work harder within the actual job itself. It gives positive
satisfaction and it is also called satisfier as it involved in performing the job. To develop the
feeling of proud of have done something different and difficult in the company by giving
them achievement. It must provide a recognition and praise of their success to its employees
which should be come from both their peers and superiors. To keeps its highly motivated the
job profile must be interesting, different and provide them challenging task which will
enhance their skills. In the motivational factor it should hold the sense of responsibility to its
employees by own their work which gives them the opportunities to learn new skills. It
increases employee job satisfaction by giving them growth and promotional opportunities
which can be done by giving promotions, rewards and recognition in the company as it
motivates the employees and increases productivity and profitability. For example in context
to Sainsbury, it gives increment and appraisals at regular interval which keeps highly
motivated and shows dedication towards work in hope of their promotion. It encourages them
by many fun activities programmes at workplace to work harder with its actual work itself
and create positive environment at the workplace (Zhao, 2021). The company sainsbury
provides its employees interesting job roles, challenging and different roles which will build
their skills in an effective manner. To increase the profitability and productivity of company
it gives a set of responsibility to its employees which is beneficial for the company and
workers as it increases the skills and development. It develops the good relationship between
the company as it gives appraisals, promotions and rewards to its employees so that they
never think of leaving the job frequently. It is necessary to keep the employees morale highly
motivated during the covid-19 period time as many employees of other organisation have to
left their job as they do not need them. It was a challenging task for both the employees and
organisation to provide them work from home and it determinately done its work in an
effective and efficient manner.
It is how both the theory of motivation that is maslow's hierarchy of needs theory and
herzberg's two factor theory works in an organisation which is very effective for the growth

of both the employees and company. It helps in the increase of market share, expansion and
job satisfaction.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it has been concluded how the recruitment and selection
of persons are done and what are the documents that are required for the both. The
importance has been explained of job description where the potential employees are able to
understand what tasks they have to perform in a business concern. It has also discusses the
personal specification according to the vacancy that a person must possess the required skill
that re very essential to perform the task. Further it has stated how a company hire the
candidates through the advertisement and the requirement to fill an application form.

REFERENCES
Demirkol, I. C. and Nalla, M. K., 2018. Enhancing motivation and job satisfaction of police officers: A
test of high performance cycle theory. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 45(12). pp.1903-1917.
Iwaniec, J. and Dunn, K. J., 2020. Measuring Motivation. The Routledge Handbook of Second
Language Acquisition and Language Testing, pp.157-166.
Rhodes, R. E., McEwan, D. and Rebar, A. L., 2019. Theories of physical activity behaviour change: A
history and synthesis of approaches. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 42, pp.100-109.
Ripoll, G., 2019. Disentangling the relationship between public service motivation and ethics: An
interdisciplinary approach. Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, 2(1).
pp.21-37.
Sale, D., 2020. Motivation and Well-Being: An Evidence-Based Frame. In Creative Teachers (pp. 131-
154). Springer, Singapore.
Zhao, N., 2021. Analysis and improvement of employee motivation system: the case of a private
educational institution: annotation to master's thesis.